The number of Portuguese people living in England and Wales has increased 141% in the decade between 2001 and 2011. According to the 2011 UK Census, there are 88,161 Portuguese people living in England and Wales, against only 36,555 registered in 2001.
Of the total number, almost half of the Portuguese residents in the UK are based in the metropolitan area of London, especially in the boroughs of Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster, and Brent. In Lambeth, the south London district, where ‘Little Portugal’ is located, the Census registered 6,992 Portuguese emigrants, the equivalent of 2.3% of the district’s population.
Outside London, the biggest concentrations of Portuguese emigrants are located northwest, east and southeast of the capital, representing 1% of the population in such areas as Norwich, and Crawley in the South East of England.
The data was revealed last week by the British Statistics Office, and although the information is official and updated, it presents inferior numbers than those calculated by the Portuguese authorities, which estimated that another 350,000 Portuguese people are living in the UK.
The 2001 UK Census shows a more ethnically diverse population, with 13% of the population (about 7.5 million people) having been born outside of the UK. Of those 7.5 million people, approximately 50% of them arrived in the UK in the last 10 years.
Overall, the total population of England and Wales now stands at of 56.1 million people, a rise of 3.7 million from 2001.
